Class and Cambridge

We started the day with a class focusing on debriefing from Belton House and the wine and cheese reception. All of the students had very positive interactions with the business leaders and were planning on writing at least one thank you note.
We boarded the mini coach and headed down to Cambridge and into the rain. We had some free time to eat lunch and do a little bit of shopping. 

 All of the male students, myself and another faculty member headed over to the Eagle pub.

This is a famous pub in Cambridge for two reasons. First, Francis Crick and James Watson made the first public announcement of their discovery of DNA. I had my photo taken under the plaque.

The second aspect of the pub is it contains signatures of WWII air force men who signed their names to the ceiling of the pub in remembrance of the prior pilots who had already died in the war.








After lunch and a little shopping at an open air market, we met up with our tour guide for a walking tour of Cambridge in the rain. Most everyone bought umbrellas, hats or socks to help with the cold and rain.

 Here we are standing near Trinity College's main gate, in the rain.

 Here is the main gate of Trinity College. There are 31 colleges that make up Cambridge. Over 16000 people apply to Cambridge each year and only 1/3 make it in.


























 This is the main courtyard of Trinity College.

 We walked in the rain to the river Cam, where we saw punts and the beautiful back gardens each college has along the river. Punts are the flat bottomed boats that you can hire to take a short ride down the river. Originally, because the river Cam is very shallow the punts were used to move freight up river.

We saw additional gates into other colleges. We could not tour many because most students are studying for exams and the colleges have requested quiet.



























We ended our time in Cambridge with a pint of still cider at a local pub.

We loaded up in the mini coach and headed to the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial. This is the only WWII American military cemetery in the UK. The University of Cambridge donated the site and the British government authorized use of its land in perpetuity as a permanent burial ground without charge or taxation. There are 3,812 headstones (3,732 Latin crosses and 80 stars of David) and 5,127 names on the missing in action tablets. We arrived just in time to witness a very wet flag ceremony. One thing that seemed to ring true to everyone was that the average age of time of death was 25 years old.

We took the mini coach home and ate a quick supper. It was about an hour drive home and most of us slept part or all of the way back to Harlaxton. Everyone was cold and tired from our day in the rain. Hopefully, everyone will get a good night's rest.